Adam West's Birthday is Today.

If you don't know who Adam West is or don't care who he then I'm afraid my cousin Guido will have to escort you outta here. With one of the most recognizable voices on the planet, Adam West was Batman in the 60's era series. I believe he is Catman or some such on a cartoon currently on air. Just thinking of old (78) Mr. West makes me want to do the Bat-toosy, walk up a building and break out the Bat shark repellent. Ahhh, for the simpler days when kids believed that a batsignal could reflect off thin air and punches were followed by POW's, ZOWIES, BAMs. I'm getting all emotional, I think I'm going to have to frequent the Kit Kat Klub and drink my sorrows away.

Now I know...

Now I know why everyone hyped the Aquaman episode of Smallville, it rocked. Please don't go shallow on me and talk about Lois Lane in a bikini. Although, no, I'm not going to say it. Is it hot in here now?
Anyway, the storyline was classic. Arthur Curry vs. Clark Kent vs. Lex Luthor and love interests all around. For the first four seasons there have been hints about Lex turning to the dark side. Now in season 5, he embraces the evil pushed on by his distrust in Clark. Think about it from his perspective for a moment, your best friend lies to you repeatedly and everyone THINKS he's the good one. Since Lex is going to be considered evil anyway he should have the fun that goes along with it.
Now the question that will torment me until it's revealed, who will die? It HAS to be
Martha
Jonathan
Lana
If you've already seen season 5 don't spoil it for me.

Smallville Season 5

Last night I picked up Smallville Season 5 and I'm completely stoked. If you've read some of my earlier posts you know that I didn't get into Smallville until earlier this year. Now I'm ready to watch season 5 which I've never seen before. YAH! Everyone's told me that the Aquaman episode rocks so I'm dying to watch that one.

This bring up an interesting trend about TV watching. Previously everyone watched shows the first time it aired or taped it or watched the rerun. The taping method saved a little time because didn't have to watch the commercials. But you still had to remember to tape it or program your VCR, have a blank tape, and blah, blah,blah. Now, I've noticed that a lot of my time conscious friends only watch a good show when it comes out on DVD. They never watch any commercials!!! You might dismiss that as petty but if a show like Smallville has 25 episodes in a season and you save 15 to 20 minutes a show that adds up. What if you did that will all your shows??? You keep up with pop culture AND have more time for other stuff.

Last night I met with my boys from www.ComicsPriceGuide.com and let me say I'm thrilled! (Not because the girl at Starbucks and Bryan were flirting with intensity.) We are working on a GREAT idea that will blow people away. It's not a new site design or minor feature change, it's HUGE. Running a large site like CPG requires that you think ahead and keep coming up with ideas, this big idea is just one that we are working on. I promise that you'll love it.

Increasing Website Traffic

I've really been thinking about ways to improve the traffic on my site, www.comicbookgeeks.com.

1. Sign up for Yahoo's www.overture.com and Google's https://adwords.google.com/select/Login and pay for keywords.

2. Another way to improve traffic is to link to my site through a blog...like this. www.comicbookgeeks.com

3. Advertise using Ebay's "about Me" page and give a link to my site.

4. Sell my book on Ebay since they've starting allowing digital books to be sold there now.

5. Sign up with comic book forums and use my signature as an advertisement. For some reason I don't like this approach it seems cheap and cheesy. So far, I haven't resorted to this and I doubt that I will.

6. This idea I'm not sure about. What if I bought other website names related to comics and had them redirect into my site??? Additional links is supposedly a good thing. Maybe each website has an article related to the website name and then an ad or link for comic book geeks .com. I don't know. I'm going to ask my guru boss, Jim Cockrum about this.

Feel free to give me your ideas/thoughts.
Ron

Well, the initial rush of having a non traditional job is over. Whew. And better still I didn't do anything completely stupid at my old job like take all the computer cords and hide them in the ductwork above the supply room. (Taking them out of the building would be stealing)

10 days into it, it's incredible. I can sit on my patio for lunch, like today it was 72 and sunny. I have the opportunity to work for Jim. I'm learning things that I can actually use for my own website and business. More traditional jobs send you to mundane land for a couple weeks until you earn your bosses approval. This is so different and exciting.

Plus I get to work with my comic book buddies on www.ComicsPriceGuide.com. There aren't many people that have 2 jobs this good.

A drive

Today I drove by the spot where my father died. He had a massive heart attack in a gravel parking lot almost 11 years ago. People were parked in that spot, walking to and from their cars completely unaware of my tragedy there. I felt like telling them to move their stupid cars and respect the man that made me but I kept driving and thinking.
11 quick years ago I received a frantic call from my mother. It was a lazy Sunday morning and my wife and I were just shaking the cobwebs out.
My mom was crying, half screaming, “Your father’s dead, your father’s dead”.
“What are you talking about mom?” I tried calming her down.
“Your father’s dead. Someone from the Bargersville Flea Market just called and said he’s dead.” My mom relayed without calming one bit.
“He’s in Bargersville?” Making sure before I took off.
“Yes.”
“I’ll call you when I find out, Mom.” With that I told my wife, jumped in the car and broke every traffic rule in Indiana. I passed people on the right side of the road, I ran red lights and honestly didn’t care if I got in a wreck. I held hope that my mom or the Bargersville informant was exaggerating.
Sliding my car to a stop in the gravel I jumped out. Immediately I could feel that all the spectators were looking at me. Not angry because I had thrown gravel in their direction but with sympathy.
“Where’s my dad.” I asked the crowd
Someone pointed to the ambulance and a few others said “In there”. I threw the doors open on the ambulance and saw two men working on my father.
“Hey, what are you doing?” an angry paramedic asked me.
“That’s my dad.”
His tone and expression changed instantly “Oh. You don’t really need to be in here. We are doing our best to revive him.” With that he escorted me out and told me some babble about his heart stopping for several minutes and after 3 times with the paddles they were able to get his heart going again. Then the ambulance left.
I stood there in the dust with a crowd of people trying not to stare at me but staring anyway. A policeman came up and gave me my father’s gun which he carried in his pocket. A gentleman with nice intentions gave me the keys to my dad’s truck and his shirt that the paramedics cut off him. Numbly, I got in my car and started driving to the hospital. Before the first stop light I was crying. My dad’s dead. I smelled his shirt and it was really him. In the sterile environment his brain had stopped but his heart kept going. In 3 days the hospital pronounced him dead, heart and mind.
When I drive by that spot, which is rarely, that day always comes to mind. Immediately following the reliving of that awful day, I think about the last time we talked. We sat in the kitchen and talked about flea markets, life, and family for about an hour. He gave me a Banana Splits thermos, we hugged and exchanged “I love you’s”. That last talk has made these 11 years since much more bearable. Remember that when you talk to your family the next time, especially if they make you mad. There’s no going back…..

Sorry for being so serious today but some days are like that.